It is known to provide a glass pane for use in an automotive body, with a frame which engages the sheet edge or periphery of the pane and which can be affixed by a detent arrangement to a complementary detent arrangement on a flange of the bodywork of the motor vehicle.
In such systems, the body of the automotive vehicle can be considered to have a casing structure which can be formed with a flange extending generally parallel to a face of the glass pane. A nonrigid elastic seal can be provided between the frame which is affixed to the pane and the body of the vehicle.
The frame can completely surround the pane or extend only over part of the periphery thereof, may be made in one piece or in several pieces, and can be attached firmly to the pane in any desired manner. Indeed, the frame can be permanently or nondetachably affixed to the pane at the time of manufacture of the latter.
A vehicle window system of this type is described in German patent application DE-OS No. 33 33 672 and in this construction, the clips carried by the frame must be fitted into holes provided on the flange of the casing.
Assembly, utilizing expanding pins, is a complex operation and in many cases, the fit tolerances can not be taken up effectively so that there are difficulties in the security of the mounting, with respect to the vibration and with respect to accuracy of assembly. In many cases, therefore, the process is made even more time consuming because the parts do not fit together effectively.
Furthermore, in prior art systems an additional sealing maybe required by the frame and body utilizing a special sealing component to bridge any gap between the frame and the body or casing. As a result, conventional systems have been generally unsuited for automatic mass production because of the large number of components involved and the assembly techniques which are required.